Water Is Being Used as a Weapon of War in Syria, Red Cross Says

Deliberate cuts to water and electricity supplies are causing significant suffering to civilian inhabitants of the Syrian city of Aleppo, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Aleppo’s population numbers around 2 million people, and those on both sides of the conflict are having severe difficulty accessing water, the ICRC said in a statement Wednesday.

Al-Jazeera reports:

“Vital services for the people, such as the water supply, must be kept away from the politics of the Syrian conflict,” said the head of the ICRC delegation in Syria, Marianne Gasser.

The water supply in Aleppo depends on the operation of pumping and electricity stations but each is controlled by different warring parties.

The operation of the stations is often used in a way to put pressure on the other side.

“Too often in Syria, water becomes a tool in the hands of fighting parties. It becomes a weapon of war. And it is civilians who suffer the most. Access to water should be unconditional,” said Gasser.

Once home to almost 2.5 million residents and considered Syria’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been divided between government and opposition control since shortly after fighting there began in mid-2012.

Al Jazeera’s Omar Yousef, reporting from Aleppo, said water has been cut in both government and rebel-held areas for more than a month and that the different sides continue to trade blame over who is responsible for the lack of water.

A similar situation exists in the capital Damascus, where cutting the water supply has been used as a tactic by warring parties to exert pressure on the other side, ICRC said.

Five years of conflict have severely affected the country’s water infrastructure, with as much as half of the total production capacity lost or damaged.

Between January and June 2015, 16 million people across Syria benefited from water projects organized by the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.